Ok Joe, technically I do not qualify as one of those individuals who rode with Campy Record brakes in 1971 inasmuch as I was a tad too young to afford that luxury. And when I did finally manage to save up enough lunch money to purchase my first true lightweight in 1973, that bike happened to come equipped with MAFAC Competition center-pull calipers (.a truly exceptional brakeset from this era in my own opinion - once they have been carefully and properly adjusted). However, my very best friend (.in fact, he remains so to this day) and a good riding buddy from those days, whose father was a prominent neurosurgeon, did purchase in the Fall of 1971 a Gitane Super Corsa which was equipped with the factory optional Campagnolo Record brakeset (.something which he likely did as the result of enthusiastic input from both myself and my friend, his son Steve). Subsequently, I was fortunate enough to acquire this very bike from my friend's father in 1976 and have only just posted some details regarding same to the Wool Jersey Gallery as follows:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Robert "center-pull, side-pull - I don't care, just so long as they pull me to a quick stop" Broderick
..the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota
P.S. I well empathize with Peter Kohler having owned an almost 40 pound Schwinn Varsity as my first 10 speed. And after the very humbling experience of taking this tank on my first serious group ride, wherein I was summarily dropped like a bad habit come the first incline (.and in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon - that would be no more than 1000 feet from the start), I committed myself to purchasing a true lightweight racing type bike as soon as I could afford to do so.
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Who had them? My perception was that the Campagnolo brakes were damn hard to get in the US until about 1973. A poll, who in the US, on this list, actually had a set of these brakes prior to 1973? What US bike offered them as standard prior to 1973?
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ